Wills and Kate
“When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen..” as the song goes. Titles of kings and queens sometimes crop up as crossword clues, so here’s some royal trivia.William and Kate will be tying the knot this month and her surname will officially be Windsor. Kate will be known as Catherine but royals don’t use last names, so Kate won’t be signing herself Catherine Windsor. Prince William and Prince Harry both use Wales as a surname in the military. Their grandfather, Prince Philip, was born a prince of Greece and Denmark but gave up his rights to those thrones when he married then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947. His surname Mountbatten is an anglicised version of his mother’s. A greatgranddaughter of Queen Victoria, she was Princess Alice of Battenberg (a German title) when she married Prince Andrew of Greece. On his marriage, Philip was created Duke of Edinburgh. The wife of the British king automatically becomes the queen. That means Kate will one day become England’s sixth Queen Catherine. The others: Catherine of Valois, Catherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr and Catherine of Braganza.
Double Delight
Lovatts puzzler Robert Wallace enjoys solving our crosswords and recently received two prizes on the same day.
Here he is, showing his Collins Atlas and his $50 cheque, for two different competitions.
His daughters Julyan and Beth have told us that he was very jubilant at his double win.
It’s a great achievement, especially as Robert is 94 years old.
April
Though April showers may come your way, They bring the flowers that bloom in May. So if it’s raining, have no regrets, Because it isn’t raining rain, you know, (It’s raining violets,) The name April comes from the Latin aprilis and may be derived from the Latin aperire ‘to open’ referring to the season when flowers and trees begin to open (in the northern hemisphere). Some people consider that the name April may come from Apru, an Etruscan version of the Greek fertility goddess Aphrodite. In Finland, April is called Huhtikuu, or Burnwood Month, from the days when the wood for beat and burn clearing of farmland was felled. In the North Frisian language, April is called gjarsmoune which means ‘grass month’. In Polish, it is Kwiecien (flowers) meaning ‘a blooming month’.
By George!
St George was born in Lod, which is now in Israel but was then part of the Roman Empire. He was a Christian soldier in the guard of Emperor Diocletian. When the emperor insisted that all soldiers renounce Christianity, George refused and was tortured and beheaded. He died on 23rd April 303 CE which is now St George’s Day in England. He’s the patron saint of many countries, including England.
